176 Star an& TKHeatbet Gossip 



been witnessed than it presented on October 5th, when 

 Arcturus blazed undimmed through the denser part 

 of the tail in brilliant conjunction with the equal 

 splendour of the nucleus." 



I have seen at various times some very impressive 

 drawings of this superb comet's position among the 

 stars during the first few days of October, 1858. 

 One of them and it is the one which perhaps I recall 

 with the greatest amount of pleasure depicts the 

 comet on a dead-black sky with its head approaching 

 Arcturus and its immense plume curving gracefully 

 over in the direction of Benetnasch, the bright star at 

 the tip of the Bear's tail. The Bear was then at its 

 lower culmination, that is, between the Pole and the 

 north horizon. The comet's plume had at that time 

 attained a length of forty degrees and an extreme 

 breadth of eight degrees. 



The late Dr. Dolmage's book, Astronomy of To-day, 

 contains an attractive reproduction of one of Bond's 

 beautiful drawings of Donati's comet four days after 

 it had passed Arcturus, and some time before it 

 ceased to be visible with the naked eye, whilst in 

 Todd's New Astronomy there is a small picture which 

 has always interested me, in that it shows the comet 

 under the tail of the Bear with the plume pointing to- 

 wards Phecda, the star immediately below Megrez, in 

 the root of the tail. 



Donati's Comet was seen without optical aid for 

 over 100 days. It was followed with the telescope well 

 into the year 1859, and when it finally departed into 

 the far-distant regions of space it did so not to return 

 for 2000 years to come. The Bellot Strait which 

 Admiral M'Clintock mentions in connection with the 



